Sports radio ratings slump continues

We apparently have a new all-sports station in town. It has call letters KGOW and it shows up in the monthly Arbitron ratings for …

What’s that?

Oh, yeah. Now I remember.

KGOW (1560 AM) isn’t a new station, of course. It’s just been absent from the monthly Arbitron ratings for most of the last couple of years but puts in a token appearance in the September numbers that came out this week.

The September book covers Aug. 15 through Sept. 11, so it includes three Texans preseason games and the Monday night opener against the Chargers. You would think that would signal a return to the relative halcyon days of last year when listenership was at a record high for local sports radio, but that’s not the case.

Among men 25-54, the key demographic for sports radio, KILT (610 AM) continues to be the overall leader among sports stations with a 2.6 share for Monday through Sunday, but that’s down from 3.5 a year ago. KFNC (97.5 FM) is at 1.6, KBME (790 AM) is at 1.2 and KGOW at 0.1.

In morning drive (6-10 a.m.), KFNC holds the lead by a tenth of a point over KILT with a 2.9 share. KBME is at 2.4 for the first month with the Adam Clanton-Lance Zierlein morning show included, and KGOW is at 0.2.

In middays (10 a.m.-3 p.m.), KILT leads at 2.4 to 1.2 for KFNC and 1.1 for KBME in its first book with the syndicated Jay Mohr show, which was shoehorned into the station’s otherwise all-local daytime lineup by Clear Channel Media officials and was part of the series of events that led to the dismissal of former morning hosts Matt Jackson and Adam Wexler. KBME had a 1.9 share in the August book, so you can see the impact of the unfortunate Mohr addition.

KILT has a 3.0 share in afternoon drive (3-7 p.m.), but that’s down from 5.1 in September 2012. KFNC is at 2.4, KBME at 1.6 and KGOW at 0.2. KILT has a 2.9 share from 7 to midnight, and the other three sports stations combine for a 1.5 share.

Moving on, for the second month I have accepted a local talk show host’s suggestion to compare ratings and audiences for individual shows that overlap dayparts (part in morning drive, for example, and part in midday) and are of different lengths (shows range from two to four hours).

By that measure, the top-rated sports show for the September book in Houston was ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike” morning show on KFNC. The Fred Davis-Ted Johnson show was second in terms of average quarter-hour audience share, followed by Rich Lord-Josh Innes on KILT, Nick Wright-John Lopez on KILT, Greg Koch-ND Kalu on KBME, Fred Faour-A.J. Hoffman on KFNC, Mike Meltser-Seth Payne on KILT, Clanton-Zierlein on KBME, Charlie Pallilo on KBME and Jerome Solomon-Dave Tepper on KFNC in the top 10.

I also calculated the average audience for each show based on total listeners among men 25-54, not on audience share for each hour. Based on that metric, Lord-Innes leads, followed by Faour-Hoffman, which indicates the larger number of men 25-54 who are listening to radio in afternoon drive. “Mike and Mike,” Wright-Lopez, Meltser-Payne, Clanton-Zierlien, Koch-Kalu, Pallilo, Davis-Johnson and Solomon-Tepper round out the top 10 in average number of listeners.